Indian universities need to focus on research: Shashi Tharoor

Speaking at the two-day Global R&D Summit on the opening day, Tharoor called for increasing collaboration between industry and academia in this regard.

Observing that no Indian university figures among the list of top 200 universities of the world, Tharoor said, "When we looked into the rating system, we found that 30 percent weightage while ranking universities globally was given to research and another 30 percent was given to citations. Our universities are primarily teaching institutions and we need to change it. Indian universities need to focus more on research."

The minister said that the Universities for Research and Innovation Bill 2012, which aimed at creating research institutions, are pending before the Parliament.

"R&D as prime driver of the economic growth cannot be overlooked. Solutions to challenges of food and water security, eradicating diseases and providing education to all can be found if we embrace work culture that gives preferences to R&D," Tharoor said.

Quoting a recent report, which revealed that USD1.4 trillion were spent globally on R&D, Tharoor said that India's contribution was only 2.1 percent compared to 33 percent by the US and over 12.6 percent by China.